Chemical engineers testing methods to improve efficiency of diesel engines while maintaining performance are getting help from a summer staple: Tiki torches.
Chemical engineers testing methods to improve efficiency of diesel engines while maintaining performance are getting help from a summer staple: Tiki torches.
A team of engineers at the University of Notre Dame is using the backyard torches as part of an effort to mimic the soot oxidation process in a diesel engine — when soot in diesel exhaust collects in the walls of a particulate filter and has to be burned off — according to a study recently published in Catalysts.
“This study is part of an effort over many years in which we have discovered and developed low-cost catalysts for soot oxidation that are based on silica glass,” said Paul McGinn, a co-lead author of the study and professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Notre Dame.
McGinn and co-principal investigator Changsheng Su at Cummins Inc. developed a method to coat diesel particulate filters with a silica glass, which slowly releases potassium ions. The potassium acts as a catalyst, reducing temperatures required to initiate filter regeneration — or soot oxidation — for improved efficiency.
Read more at University of Notre Dame
Image: Sample cores from particulate filters used in testing. Credit: University of Notre Dame
